Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Boat anchor..

That is a lot of space and weight for batteries unless you spend some serious cash on lithiums. I had an Ulterra 36 volt on the boat I just sold. Would occasionally use spot lock when we were close to the dam to try to hold our position when fishing for cats and stripers. It would work, but barely. And the boat would move around a lot within a 15 foot circle or so.
The easiest, safest, and least expensive option is to drift.

Double duty for SIL- anchor and bait both?

Thanks guys- good advice, - still don't know what I'll try, but I certainly favor drift over anchor for safety and clutter. I've had better luck anchoring up with charters and friends in the past tho. Think I'll try the easy/cheap way first, and go from there.

With a 2 fish limit, it doesn't take a LOT of luck in a good area tho, and yes, i've fished around the slack previously.

Couple decades past I was on a charter fishing a narrow trench off the Barren Islands, out of Homer. Our boat had a gear reducer or half- gear - something like that - so we could back-troll through the trench slower than the half a dozen other charters - some times another boat was just a few yards off our gunwales. Repeated passes drifting the trench (200' deep). We outfished them about 2 to one, in a shorter time, with bigger fish. Mine were 70 and 105.

A good time was had by all, except for one bitch who never let up about "wasting my time" because we stopped for 20 minutes off Nanwalek to make cod bait. We were glad to see the end of her back in Homer!

Another time off Deep Creek we were trying out a friends new aluminum boat and followed the non-commercial "fleet" out- maybe 20 boats since we didn't know what we were doing. They all anchored up in a triangular pattern close together, so we anchored up at the down- current apex. All that chum..... !! Dynamite fishing.

Thanks again for the advice. Probably going to try surf-fishing in the next few days too. I'm working way too hard on this gardening/yatd prep!

Pickled bait lasts longer.

If 400’ of 1/4 or 3/8” line fills half the inflatable then you ain’t doing it right. I can fit 400’ of 3/8” crab line into a milk crate EASILY. If you were to take a little more time and wind the line onto a spool then it takes up the space of a basketball or slightly bigger. 😉

It’s a jo, ah say a joke son!

I would be drifting as well when fishing, you certainly can't fish while on the hook when the tides are ripping.

Even drifting is difficult when the tides are moving..

Regardless, always a good idea to have a anchor, I would take a Bruce over a danforth personally.

5 to one scope works. 10' of chain works. Sharp knife is handy. Your inflatable is perfect. If you fish two and a half hours before and one and a half after, then pick the tide that has the least amount of differential, you likely will have all the halibut you want. Fellas are catching 30 to 50 pounders now, right from shore. Tide will not matter at all.

If drifting, catching is fine, particularly at the times listed above. Have caught many Kings at the same time. It's all good.

ps. 25 to 50 feet of water is your Huckleberry off Wiskey G. Guys go down anchored because they don't pay any attention to the "swing" and leave their motor down to collect the line. Simple as "cake and a piece of pie" . . . 👍

Looks from the pricing that Hodgen done bought the rope manufacturers out! Holy crap!! The friggen rope costs aout 8X the anchor! Gonna check around, but $1.80 or more per foot for 300 feet may be a deal killer for how little I fish. Or fish more. Or justify it by amortising.....

Matt says that where they fish, kelp and other crap fouls the lines bigly while drifting, so they prefer to anchor up over slack tide period.

Get polydac. It's about $100 for a 600ft spool.

polydac is soft enough to work fine. I use the 5/6 on my big boats. It's good to go.

I wouldn't be afraid of 200ft of 3/8 and 15ft of chain. Find an old cooler to store it all in, and drill some holes in the bottom.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083SJ114...TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

I am golden!

A couple hours ago I remembered my old hunting partner gave me his personal use salmon stuff 6-8 years ago when his health went south and he couldn't use it anymore. (Died a few months ago)

60' net, 4 posts, 2 pulleys, and ROPE!. Only ever used the net a couple times when "team fishing", when 2 nets come in handy, and never the rest of the stuff as I don't set on the beach, but offshore a bit on the mud flats (more effective- tho tending net in an 18' Grumman canoe can get a bit sporty.)

I found the partial spool of 3/8 poly rope and strung it out- around 600 feet! Don't want to cut it, and it isn't going to fit in a 5 gal bucket - but there is a plan B.

I have a round, plastic, salt-pellet container from the replaced-several-years-ago water softener system that's just been taking up space, unused for anything.. It is somewhat larger diameter than a 5 gal bucket, and I'll cut it down to size, height-wise, once I get the rope in it, with room for anchor and chain. I'll get those Monday - those are pretty cheap.

I knew I'd find a use for that salt container sooner or later - I don't throw chit away if it has a potential use... Maybe... In the future... Possibly. Too many years on farms and remote villages where a guy really needs a "junk-pile" for resource.


I could use more storage space tho...... I still have "stuff" parked out in the weather, despite a 32X40 garage with 16X40 lean-to on the side.

From the 100 foot mark, with rope behind me.

Had to try it- it almost fit in the 5 gal bucket!

'
Plus it looks like you carefully coiled it.
There's no time for that when you are pulling anchor. You have to either pile it on the deck or quickly feed it into whatever container you are using.
Poly rope doesn't lay down like solid braid nylon, but it's a lot cheaper.
A plastic laundry basket might work as a container and gloves are nice to have when pulling a lot of poly rope.

Hence the old Culligan container, cut down to hold piled rope, chain, and anchor.

Buying anchor and chain today.

Step one- get the Rubber Ducky down off the garage door opener hanger, pump up, install floorboards, put on trailer.
Step 2 see how that Culligan fits in the bow and if works for that.
Step 3. fill with anchor stuff
Step 4. cut container to fit
Step 5 Go fishing sometime....

It's raining today anyway- no yard work.

Fish a 2-hook set line w/ a "bobber". The ultimate easy button.

You'll know when you got a nice one - just like that scene from Jaws.

I can make a guess what you mean , but would you elucidate? Diagram maybe?

The old ' 96 30hp Everscrewed fired right up yesterday, after 5 years in storage. Neutral safety switch was worn down to non-automatic function - so I went in to fix it after getting back from Kotz, and discovered the "mechanic" that had worked on it previously had left out another part elsewhere - the gear-shift position stop piece. I have to admit - it was a smooth-shifting SOB! - Robbed the parts out of currently non-functional 25 - tiller handle stuff - and re-ordered them. I really need to get that 25 back up and running again. I should change out the original water pump in the 30 also- the 25 has a new one in it, already - if I got the impeller flanges in correctly....

Gear oil was black tho. I should have probably changed it sometime since it was new. Dinged up plug slots indicate I must have, sometime, don't remember when! Probably before that 8 years in Kotzebue! Now to run it for an hour or so in the lake - but not this week.

Squirrel ears leaves are on; there is planting to be done!

It was a PITA getting the gear oil to level without a pump. Squeeze bottle up drain plug no worky - Invention is a Mother! - it can be done from the top plug - takes awhile, and some inventiveness. Pump should be here by Friday and I'll check it again for level before and after running it awhile in the lake next week. Might just change it out altogether again, depending on condition. Got magnetic drain plugs coming too. New (CORRECT!) spark plugs too.

And a starlink V# antanae mgble mount. Busy, busy.

Good tides coming up, but other plans for a the rec cabin visit over the weekend and into the next - we will squeeze in a day of surf-fishing Friday or Saturday, at Whiskey Gulch or Ninilchik, anyway. I really wanted to fish the best tide(s) on Thursday, but Mama says the carpet must be extracted so it can dry while we are gone.

What I need is more chit to work on..... NOT! . This retirement sucks if one has to actually schedule a fishing day well ahead of time!

A two-hook "set line" is mentioned in 5 AAC 77.624 (2)

I run mine with a 1/2 cinder block anchor (Home Depot has them). Run ground line to surface buoy and use two circle hooks clipped on to the ground line.

Thanks - I like that!